With baseball, soccer and the NBA playoffs in full swing, this is the perfect time to write about the value of sports sponsorships for a healthcare organization. In short, when – if ever – does sponsoring a professional sports team or venue make sense? Health systems and insurers who are not entering into these arrangements seem to be the rule, rather than the exception, these days. In fact, three of the four organizations that I’ve worked for have negotiated significant spon

Disruption has been the buzzword in healthcare – and healthcare marketing – for the past five years or so. Yet, we tend to think of that disruption only at a super-high, macro level. There is a real opportunity to apply it to everything we do. One question can help get you there. It’s asking “what happens if we don’t do this?” when evaluating existing work, requests from partners and future opportunities. There is another way of approaching your questioning. You could use “wh

With the year winding down, it’s the perfect time to read and reflect. To help you do that, here are two excellent resources for anyone in healthcare marketing. Although not connected in any official way, I found that they complement each other quite well. I hope these summaries will encourage you to pick these books up for yourself or someone you know this holiday season. Joe Public III: The End of Hospital Marketing by Chris Bevolo The final entry in the Joe Public trilogy,

Late last year, I challenged myself to put together four simple slides that would capture the state of the healthcare industry at a high level and explain the role of marketers. The initial intended audience was people who are new to the profession or considering a career in healthcare marketing. However, I quickly realized the fundamentals outlined here are good for just about anyone connected to healthcare no matter what their level of experience. As I was looking at these

Continuing the trend for the past few years, healthcare is in an exciting period of innovation and change, which is pushing marketers, communicators and strategists to respond in kind. Yet, change is rarely easy, resources for most organizations are constricted and the pressure to show immediate results grows stronger every day. Add in that during the past two weeks alone we’ve seen major disruption happening in the healthcare space with confirmed and potential “mega mergers”

If you couldn't attend the Healthcare Communicators of Oregon conference last week, you missed some engaging speakers and inspiring content. The good news is that thanks to Twitter, you can get the essence of the event by looking at the comments and content shared by attendees. Here are seven tweets from #hcofall2017 that captured some of the most important insights. Lee Aase: Keys to success in rapidly changing times While being smart is always a good thing, having the right

It’s exciting to see months of hard work come to fruition with a new messaging campaign for Providence in Oregon and Alaska. Drawn from the deep relationships with our patients and caregivers, the “Dear health” campaign highlights stories inspired by the life-long journey we all have with our health. Sometimes our health stories are simple and even funny, and other times they are complex and emotionally draining. At Providence, we help people get through it all by providing t

Although not always easy to put into practice, good marketing is fairly straightforward if you possess a strong understanding of the core principles and can effectively work with your business partners. Marketing healthcare adds layers of complexities and complications that take time to fully understand. Last week, I gave a lecture on healthcare marketing to students in OHSU’s MS in Healthcare program. My goal was to present a useful framework that they could consult as the t